ITV’s coverage of England’s Rugby World Cup-ending loss to Australia drew an average audience of more than 10 million, burying BBC1’s Doctor Who which could manage just 3.7 million viewers.
England’s 33-13 loss to Australia, a defeat which makes England the first host nation to ever go out of the tournament at the pool stage, drew a 15-minute peak audience of 11 million while share of viewing peaked at 48.8%.
The 10.2 million average audience that tuned in to watch the match was just 200,000 less than ITV’s coverage of England’s dramatic loss to Wales a week earlier, the most-watched rugby match since the final of the 2007 tournament.
Full coverage from 7.15pm to 10.15pm picked up an average 8 million viewers and a 36.8% share of total television viewing.
Rugby fever was a ratings killer for Doctor Who which for the second week in a row drew an average audience of just 3.7 million. The third episode of the current series, Under the Lake, managed just a 16.3% share of viewing between 8.25pm and 9.10pm.
Strictly Come Dancing was less affected – it overlapped with 45 minutes of ITV’s build up coverage and just 25 minutes of the match itself – drawing an average audience of 7.9 million and a 38% share between 6.20pm and 8.25pm.
Earlier, South Africa’s crunch pool match against Scotland drew an average of 4 million viewers and a 26.6% share of viewing between 4.20pm and6.50pm.
England’s early exit from the Rugby World Cup is not good news for ITV as the home nation’s participation guarantees huge audiences and big advertiser spend.
Analysts at Liberum said that the impact could be enough to dent ITV’s share price but argued that such a kneejerk reaction is not warranted.
“TV advertising slots tend to be booked 4-6 weeks in advance so virtually all the slots for October would already have been booked,” said Ian Whittaker, media analyst at Liberum. “So advertising revenues are unlikely to be significantly impacted.”
Whittaker admitted that the “credible issue” of a loss of big rating England games is the impact on ITV’s audience share versus rivals.
“However, again, this is likely to be minimal especially if the other home nations stay in,” he said. “October is one month out of 12 and the Rugby World Cup is turning out to be quite an attractive spectacle.”
He also added that ITV’s fourth quarter lineup of non-sport programming is already strong thanks to stalwarts in the schedule including the final series of Downton Abbey and Simon Cowell’s X Factor.
